Rory McIlroy captured his second Major title with a runaway eight-shot win in the US PGA Championship at Kiawah Island.
The Northern Irishman began the final round with a three-shot lead and played a superbly controlled round of golf to keep the field at bay, a closing birdie completing a bogey-free 66.
He was never headed during the last 18 holes and although Ian Poulter at one stage cut the defict to one shot, it was ultimately almost as straightforward a victory as McIlroy's eight-shot triumph at last year's US Open.
In the process, McIlroy regained the world No 1 ranking and his second Major has arrived at 23 years and three months - a month younger than Tiger Woods was when he won his second.
Suggestions that McIlroy could dominate golf for a decade or more in the way Woods did have plenty of credence now.
Poulter started the final round at one under, six shots behind McIlroy, but started like a train with birdies at each of the first five holes.
The Englishman also picked up a shot at the seventh with a two-putt birdie on the par five, but McIlroy was not standing still either.
He made birdies at the second and third holes to regain his three-shot cushion and Poulter then failed to get up and down at the eighth to drop his first shot of the round.
McIlroy responded by making birdie at seven with a drive and a five iron - on a 541-yard hole - but Poulter rolled in a 10ft birdie putt at 12 to get to eight under, just two adrift.
At that stage it looked set for an enthralling duel on the back nine, only for the Poulter train to run into the buffers.
He dropped shots at 13, 14 and 15, each time after missing the green and failing to get up and down.
Within minutes McIlroy had made a 15ft birdie putt at 12 and with a six-shot lead, the title was in the bag.
He was able to make steady pars at five of the last six holes before making a 15ft birdie putt at 18 to wrap up what was ultimately the most comfortable of victories.
England's David Lynn, playing his first Major in America, birdied the 16th and 17th to get to five under par with a closing 68 to finish second, earning a cheque for more than £400,000 and an invitation to next year’s Masters.
Poulter slipped away to finish on four under and shared third place with defending champion Keegan Bradley, Justin Rose who roared home with a 66 and unfortunate Carl Pettersson.
The Swede had been the closest challenger to McIlroy with a round to go, but walking from the fourth tee he was told he had incurred a two-stroke penalty on the opening hole.
He had pushed his drive into the edge of a hazard and on the backswing for his second shot he had flicked the grass behind the ball.
His par there became a double-bogey six. To his credit he bounced back with three straight birdies but was never able to threaten his playing partner.
McIlroy's victory ended a streak in which 16 straight Majors have been won by 16 different players. He is also the first 54-hole leader to win a Major this year.
Players from Ireland have now won six of the last 18 Majors.
After winning the first tournament to have 99 of the game's top 100 in it, McIlroy said: "I don't think it’s sunk in yet. It was a great round of golf – I’m speechless.
“The game-plan was just to play solid. I got off to a bit of a shaky start but settled into it and I thought my putting was phenomenal.
“Thanks dad and thanks mum - I'm sure she's watching at home. I had a good feeling at the start but I never imagined doing this.
“It means an awful lot to look at the names on the trophy and put mine alongside them.”
Lynn said: “To get into the Masters is a dream come true.
“I saw Rory at 11 under and thought ‘he won’t mess up from there’. It was just a case of playing for as good a position as I could.
“I've never been exempt to play in anything in America before (he qualified by breaking into the world’s top 100) so that's the reason why I've never been over here. This is a good start!”
Poulter said after his 69: “I guess it was a dream start. I guess I pushed him (Rory) and ran out of steam at the end.
“It was a great day. It's just a shame I couldn't quite finish it off.”
McIlroy is a best-priced 7/1 with
BetVictor to add a third Major to his collection in the 2013 Masters.
US PGA Championship collated fourth round scores and totals (USA unless stated, par 72):
275 Rory McIlroy (NIrl) 67 75 67 66
283 David Lynn (Eng) 73 74 68 68
284 Keegan Bradley 68 77 71 68, Justin Rose (Eng) 69 79 70 66, Ian Poulter (Eng) 70 71 74 69, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 66 74 72 72
285 Steve Stricker 74 73 67 71, Peter Hanson (Swe) 69 75 70 71, Jamie Donaldson (Wal) 69 73 73 70, Blake Adams 71 72 75 67
286 Tiger Woods 69 71 74 72, Adam Scott (Aus) 68 75 70 73, Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 68 76 71 71, Ben Curtis 69 77 73 67, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 68 78 70 70, Bubba Watson 73 75 70 68, Tim Clark (Rsa) 71 73 73 69
287 John Daly 68 77 73 69, Bo Van Pelt 73 73 67 74, Padraig Harrington (Irl)70 76 69 72
288 Seung-yul Noh (Kor) 74 75 74 65, Pat Perez 69 76 71 72, Robert Garrigus 74 73 74 67, Joost Luiten (Ned) 68 76 75 69, Jimmy Walker 73 75 67 73, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 70 79 70 69
289 Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 71 72 70 76, Jason Dufner 74 76 68 71, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den) 75 74 71 69, Marc Leishman (Aus) 74 72 71 72, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 69 77 72 71
290 Bill Haas 75 73 69 73, John Senden (Aus) 73 74 72 71, Greg Chalmers(Aus) 70 76 72 72, Luke Donald (Eng) 74 76 74 66
291 Phil Mickelson 73 71 73 74, Vijay Singh (Fij) 71 69 74 77, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 71 75 73 72, Rich Beem 72 76 72 71, Marcel Siem (Ger) 72 73 71 75, Y.E. Yang (Kor) 73 74 74 70
292 Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 68 75 74 75, J J Henry 72 77 70 73, Jim Furyk 72 77 70 73, Martin Laird (Sco) 71 74 79 68, David Toms 72 78 72 70, Gary Woodland 67 79 75 71
293 Dustin Johnson 71 79 72 71, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 73 75 75 70, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 70 79 74 70, Ernie Els (Rsa) 72 75 73 73, Paul Lawrie (Sco) 73 75 71 74, Scott Piercy 68 78 78 69
294 Brendon De Jonge 71 78 72 73, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 70 75 74 75, K J Choi (Kor) 69 77 75 73, Sang-moon Bae (Kor) 72 78 71 73, Darren Clarke(NIrl) 73 76 72 73
295 Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn) 69 77 79 70, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 70 77 74 74
296 K.T. Kim (Kor) 69 77 77 73
297 George McNeill 71 76 80 70, Ken Duke 71 78 74 74, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 67 78 75 77, Chez Reavie 74 76 73 74
298 Alexander Noren (Swe) 67 80 73 78, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 74 75 78 71
299 John Huh 72 78 79 70, Toru Taniguchi (Jpn) 72 76 78 73
300 Zach Johnson 72 73 76 79
304 Matthew Every 72 76 74 82
306 Cameron Tringale 69 78 77 82
